Will Carl Icahn Get Buried in His Yahoo (YHOO) Position?
We think it is unlikely that Carl Icahn will win his Yahoo (YHOO) proxy fight. We also think that, even if he wins the proxy fight, he will have a tough time persuading Microsoft to buy the company for anything close to $34 a share.
Why?
With regard to the proxy fight, we still don't think Carl Icahn has a plan for Yahoo other than selling to Microsoft (and using the threat of a Google deal to force a sale to Microsoft). Carl Icahn can't win the proxy fight without the support of Yahoo's big institutional shareholders (Capital Research and Legg Mason, for example), and without a compelling Plan B, we don't think he's going to get it. (See "Sorry, Carl, We're Not Voting For Your Proxy Slate" for details).
With regard to the $34 a share, we believe that if Yahoo had handled the original Microsoft offer better, the two companies would have agreed to a deal at $34-$35 in mid-February. In February, this was the clear middle ground between Microsoft's original $31 and Yahoo's $40. However, Yahoo spent three months trying to find any deal BUT Microsoft, and, in the end, we think Steve Ballmer's enthusiasm for the deal waned (justifiably, in our opinion).
Since February, moreover, lots of things have changed. To wit:
- Microsoft has lost interest in the deal,
- The online display ad environment has deteriorated significantly, and
- Microsoft's stock price has dropped 10%.
This last factor alone, in our opinion, makes a deal above $30 unlikely. Steve Ballmer now knows that many Microsoft shareholders and employees hate this deal, and they'll hate it more if he does it at a price high enough to knock the stock down again. In light of its own stock price, we think it is perfectly reasonable for Microsoft to say "we based our original offer on the conditions at the time, and those conditions have changed. If we were to make the same offer today, it would be at least 10% lower, or, say, $28." And we don't see the club Icahn is going to wave to make Microsoft change this.
Which raises the question: Is Carl Icahn going to end up losing a boatload of money on his Yahoo bet? This seems a reasonable possibility.
We estimate that Carl's cost basis in Yahoo (mostly via options) is about $25. A few weeks ago, he was $120+ million to the good. Now, however, his paper profit is shrinking, and--in our opinion--it could soon disappear altogether.
If Carl loses his proxy fight and Yahoo doesn't pull a magical Google deal out of the hat, Yahoo's stock will likely fade toward the low $20s. If, somehow, Carl wins the proxy fight, we think the best Microsoft takeout price he'll likely be able to negotiate is in the $27-$28 range. If Yahoo and Microsoft agree to a deal at $27.50, Yahoo's stock will probably trade around $25 now and close in on $27.50 over the course of the year of pre-closing purgatory.
Unless Carl has an impressive Plan B, in other words, we think he'll either end up making only a modest amount on a transaction that, a couple of months ago, looked like a layup sale at $33--or actually lose money. We would not be surprised, therefore, if Carl soon gave up and started selling.
See Also:
Icahn Win Will Trigger Yahoo Severance Bonanza: When Will Carl Give Up and Sell?
Sorry, Carl, We're Not Voting For Your Yahoo Proxy Plan




In general I suppose Icahn's margin carrying costs related to the options are the costs of the options (just under $6) rather than whatever the stock might be at the time of a deal announcement (27?.. 28? -- for a deal at 33?... 34?), so even his own NPV calculation would be different from that of a long buyer of the stock... whether they'd financed or paid in cash is still a fact that must ultimately bear the NPV calculation.
In my personal opinion, a cooperative deal between Yahoo and MSFT that doesn't involve a total merger might (I said "might") subsequently allow analysts to discount a higher future value into Nov 2010 than an outright merger might. It would depend on the deal struck, and with whomever Yahoo struck it.
All stockholders are virtual observers of some NPV calculation. To think otherwise would be to believe in truly free money... or the myth of the perpetual machine. Selling out requires the same objective examination of probabilities.
* Microsoft has lost interest in the deal -
MSFT would like everyone to believe that. But remember that they also keep saying that all options are on the table and they reserve a right to go for a full acquisition of YHOO at a future date. The way its stock has been trading lately, seems like nobody except for Henry believes that MSFT has really lost interest. If MSFT had really lost interest, they would come out with a categorical statement that they are no longer interested in any kind of deal with YHOO and that would support its stock.
* The online display ad environment has deteriorated significantly - This is all the more reason for MSFT to salvage whatever is left of the search market. Only way they can do it is to acquire YHOO.
* Microsoft's stock price has dropped 10% - Well considering its precarious position in its bread and butter markets (office / OS) which would soon go the way of dodo or dinosaur (pick your metaphor), and lack of traction in new emerging markets like online, music, mobile, gaming etc, MSFT doesn't have much of a choice. It can go down without a fight dishonorably or try to fight it out and go down honorably. This is the decision that Ballmer and Gates have to make. I think they will hesitate and when all is said and done will decide to put up a fight. If they end up buying YHOO, MSFT stock will go down because of the high price paid and if they don't buy YHOO, it will still go down because the stock-holders would want to jump out of a shrinking enterprise. Icahn is definitely betting on MSFT's weak hand here.
My yesterday's comment on Icahn's thought process is at:
http://googyhoo.blogspot.com/2008/06/what-icahn-really-wants.html
I think Icahn will come out a winner in this. He will probably get 1 or 2 seats on the board. At that point he will make the YHOO stock acquistion more expensive than the $33 MSFT was offering or if MSFT dithers, put the "goog-deal" gun to its head, which would be the worst nightmare coming true for MSFT.
Everyday that MSFT stock drops, Yang's decision to reject MSFT's low-ball stock swap deal, looks that much smarter. I believe the pundits give lot more credit to Ballmer compared to Yang. But the stock market has showed who the winner is and who the loser is in this saga.
Jerry?....is that you Jerry?
Don't tell me that you've resorted to fishing around in blogs trying to take some dirt of your good name and character.
Get it together, you have a company to run.
Leave Henry alone.
I want you on my softball team!! When we're down 10 runs in the bottom of the ninth, you'll have my guys believing we have them right where we want them!
Don't worry if you can't hit to save your life, we always need cheerleaders on the bench.
Since when has any fixed price for anything survived time pressures? The economy is crumbling rapidly and it's taking almost every sector down with it.
Yahoo's value is shrinking; Yahoo is worth less to Microsoft. Microsoft's value is shrinking; Microsoft has less value in its stock to use to pay for the 50/50 cash stock deal.
Don't fight the river.
Your arguments to date, although you put more generous numbers today, have been 1. Microsoft will pick up the pieces in the low twenties and 2. (you reiterated yesterday in tech ticker) Icahn and his buddies are about to unload all thier positions making the stock tank.
So why are you long then?!?! Those are sell recommendations in my eyes.
The other big shareholders are quite because they don't get into the politics of these things.
He'll be well-flat, long before his last gesture on the virtues of a Yahoo/Microsoft deal is consumed. Even if he takes a loss it would have been a "calculated risk."
Yang has no plan for this company. He has no plan for shareholder value. There is NO pending deal with either Google or Microsoft. IMO - Carl Icahn has better 'intent' than the current Yahoo board. He at least has good intentions, which is much more than I can say with the current Yahoo board. More than anything, I would like to see Jerry Yang step down as CEO, and/or replaced. If Carl has the capability to do this - then shareholders will be much better off.
So Carl is too smart to screw up and if he does it's just the inherent risk in the venture.
According to you, he's smart whether he makes money or loses money.
Look dude, if Carl blows this bluff, he's a loser.
You're long and wrong.
What makes you think Henry is long on Yahoo?
If you were paying attention to all the analysis on this site over the last two weeks, then you would be smart to sell Yahoo now before it fades away.
This is not rocket sience it's a game that people play, every day.
'Sorry, Carl Icahn, We're Not Voting For Your Yahoo (YHOO) Director Slate'
That's the headline.....
'We are Yahoo (YHOO) shareholders. Which means we've got a vote coming up.'
That's the first sentence in the story on this site. What do you mean I'm not paying attention. There's more here than meets the eye. At first I thought Henry really felt that way now I'm doubting it.
Jerry Yang is a loser now. The board is an embarrassment - none of them will ever get a board spot in the future. Who should lead this company forward - Maybe (I said Maybe) not Ichan, but definitely not Yang and his board. Back to you Henry,
Full Disclosure -
I don't understand your comments primarily indicating that I'm cheerleading YHOO. I think MSFT is clearly the loser here, which is the gist of my comment, which you seem to have missed. Its stock is down from ~$33 to about ~$27 since they announced the deal. YHOO stock is up from $19 prior to deal announcement to about $26 today. Also it was close to ~$30 in the interim. So those holding YHOO stock had plenty of opportunity to sell close to ~$30, which is better than any offer that MSFT made in the interim. Of course, this is taking into account the delay in regulatory approval etc. For argument's sake, if we assume that Yang had accepted a 50% cash / 50% stock deal from MSFT at $33. The stock still would have traded close to $30 or could have be even lower if MSFT stock crashed even more due do dilution. And its not clear if Ballmer would have offered that deal, since he didn't specify the cash/stock split when he offered $33. So Yang did well to reject the deal without any valuation guarantees from MSFT.
@The illusionist
I agree that its a "calculated risk" that Icahn is taking. He has long term option positions (nov 2010) and he can afford to wait. If anyone believes that he wouldn't want to wait and would be out soon, why would he buy long-term options? He indicated on CNBC that he is prepared to wait even 6 months if required.
I think he believes that the downside in YHOO is limited due to two factors
1. MSFT desperately needs to do something about its rapidly dwindling search share. Its cash cows are soon going to be eaten by GOOG, AAPL, ADBE etc. The only move that MSFT has is to buy YHOO, to get the scale to compete with GOOG. Even Ballmer said that in this "walk" letter. And I'm using "compete" in a loose sense, because GOOG is like a freight train running at top-speed.
2. GOOG won't let MSFT acquire YHOO for cheap. If you look at the events so far, anytime MSFT got close to buying YHOO for its bid price, "persons close to the situation" come out of the closet and talk about an imminent search outsourcing deal between GOOG and YHOO.
If the deal happens, it won't be based on how much MSFT can afford to pay without tanking its stock, but it will be based on how desperate MSFT is to have some semblance of competition with GOOG. This is really bad news for MSFT stock, some of which is already reflected. If Yang wins the proxy fight, there is nothing that would force him to negotiate in MSFT' favor. So the price-tag would go up and not down as most of the pundits expect.
Based on my reasoning, I believe that GOOG will do well, MSFT will keep going down and YHOO will remain neutral until the proxy fight, relative to the market. In the proxy fight I believe that Yang will win with 1-2 seats conceded to Icahn. If YHOO stock tanks to $21-23 range at that point, it would be a good time to buy YHOO, just as it was after MSFT walked. But its unlikely in my opinion.
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/06/12/googleyahoo-announcement-at-130-this-afternoon/
"I think MSFT is clearly the loser here".
You may want to believe that, and clearly you invested with that in mind, but every day YHOO goes down the price tag goes lower if MSFT decides to revisit a buyout.
The real losers here are those that bought YHOO smugly expecting a "desperate" MSFT to make them rich.
Ask yourself: Who buys a house on fire?
Ask yourself: Who is desperate now?
Remember, numbers don't lie, people do.
http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=MSFT#chart9:symbol=msft;range=20080131,20080611;compare=yhoo+goog;indicator=volume;charttype=candlestick;crosshair=on;ohlcvalues=0;logscale=on;source=undefined
Assuming that he claims to be and not to be a stickler to details or anything but there are no "November 2010" options on Yahoo!!! There are January 2010's and after doing a rough calculation on all the January 2010 calls and assuming that Carl owns all of the Open interest in those calls, his total outlay is just $21,228,310!
If that's the bulk of his holdings then it's an absolute "joke" of a position. Of course he could have an Over The Counter Option that was written by some other firm, however the biggest fallacy in this whole argument is owning an option does not make you a shareholder until they are exercised!!!!
The details of Icahn's holding are in the:
http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/921669/000092847508000191/0000928475-08-000191.txt
Of course it may have changed by now.
Beyond the synthetic access to those extra shares he's taking a chance on Yahoo not being under $19.50 come November 2010 and meanwhile he can turn a profit on those calls at anything over $25.30 between now and then.
Thanks for the link.
As you should know by now, they're privately negotiated options in which Merrill Lynch International has written Icahn the calls to expire on Nov 5, 2010 at a strike of 19.50. Too, he's written corresponding puts back to them with the same maturity and strike, for Merrill's protection.
He filed that his average cost is about 5.81 (less one penny for the put premium he was paid), so, without regard to transaction costs or margin costs, he's net profitable at anything over about 25.30 (19.50 plus 5.80). The sooner he could realize a gain, the higher the net annualized yield to him at any fixed price he were to decide to cash out the options. He has the right to settle in cash and Merrill would then be free to continue to hold the shares or sell them off to hedge their risks.
These are not options that trade in uniform contract terms on listed exchanges.
Merrill has agreed to give Icahn voting control of optioned shares on the call side, but not if the corresponding shares were to be put to Icahn under 19.50.
You see, Merrill is sort of holding the bet for Icahn, like the chips at a poker game... but his written puts also help keep them from being left holding the bag.
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